tag

The United Nations on Friday released a long-awaited update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 158 firms from 11 countries. UN rights chief Volker Turk has condemned as a war crime Israel's policy of settlements on Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank. While several companies including Alstom and Opodo had been removed from the non-exhaustive database, major firms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remained on the list. Contacted by AFP for their reaction, the companies have not so far responded. While most of the companies were based in Israel, others were based in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Britain and the United States. The report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), urged companies to "take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts" of their activities. Turk said in a statement: "This report underscores the due diligence responsibility of businesses working in contexts of conflict to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses." Israel denounced the report as "a document with no legal ground and far beyond the scope of the OHCHR". The country's UN office in Geneva added: "The OHCHR continues to misuse UN resources to tarnish Israel, proving that it is not able to execute its mandate in any adequate way. "We call on friends not to yield to this ugly attempt to blacklist Israeli firms." The list was first produced in 2020 after a UN Human Rights Council resolution called for a database of firms that profited from business in illegally occupied Palestinian territory. The UN rights office was asked to list companies found to be taking part in any of 10 activities, including construction, surveillance, demolitions and destruction of agricultural land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Listing companies in the database was "not, and does not purport to be, a judicial or quasi-judicial process", it stressed. Despite a requirement for the database to be updated annually, it has been revised just once before, in 2023, when some companies named in the original list were removed. Friday's release marks the first update that includes fresh names. "A total of 68 new companies were added to the list published in 2023, while seven of those... were removed as they were no longer involved in any of the activities concerned," the rights office said. The list is not exhaustive, the rights office said, acknowledging that it had only had time to review 215 of the 596 companies about which it received submissions. For this latest update it said it had prioritised companies with a direct physical link in the settlements, in the fields of construction, real estate, mining and quarries. The remainder will be assessed in future updates, it said. The exercise has been contentious from the start. In 2020, Israel and the United States condemned the creation of the database. Today, nearly two years into the war raging in Gaza, where Israel faces growing accusations of committing genocide, the issue has become even more contentious.

Israeli colonists stormed on Thursday the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied Jerusalem, under the protection of the Israeli occupation police. The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported that dozens of colonists entered Al-Aqsa courtyards in groups, carried out provocative tours and performed Talmudic rituals. Since the start of the full-scale Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in October 2023, more than 68,000 colonists have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of occupation forces, amid tightened entry measures to the mosque and the entrances to the Old City.

E1 plan cuts West Bank off from East Jerusalemamilies set to lose access to schools, clinics, livelihoodsSettlements form near-total ring around cityRoad project would isolate Bedouin, split communitiesThe land available to Atallah al-Jahalin’s Bedouin community for grazing livestock near Jerusalem has steadily shrunk, as expanding Jewish settlements on Israeli-occupied territory encircle the city and push deeper into the West Bank.Now, the group of some 80 families faces eviction from the last patches of valley and scrubland they have called home for decades.Their predicament is tied to an Israeli settlement project that would slice through the West Bank, sever its connection to East Jerusalem, and — according to Israeli officials — “bury” any remaining hope of a future Palestinian state.As more Western powers move to recognise a Palestinian state amid frustration over the war in Gaza, Palestinians around Jerusalem say they are watching their land vanish under the advance of Israeli cranes and bulldozers. Settlements now form an almost unbroken ring around the city.“Where else could I go? There is nothing,” said Jahalin, seated beneath a towering cedar tree near Maale Adumim, a settlement that has already grown into a Jewish suburb of Jerusalem on Israeli-occupied Palestinian land.The so-called E1 project, recently greenlit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, will fill the last major gap in the settlement belt — an area that, until now, had remained untouched by construction.“This actually cuts the possibility of a viable Palestinian state,” said Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group. “The territorial continuity from North to South is going to be totally cut.” Israel previously froze construction plans at Maale Adumim in 2012 and again in 2020, following objections from the US, European allies and other powers who viewed the project as a threat to any future peace deal with the Palestinians.But in August, Netanyahu and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that work would begin.“Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground,” Smotrich said. “Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods.”The move was condemned by Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union and Japan as a breach of international law.Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeinah condemned the announcement, calling it a violation of international law.The offices of Netanyahu and Smotrich did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.Reflecting growing criticism of the Gaza war — which has devastated much of the enclave on Israel’s southern border — Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal recognised a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining about 140 other countries that have already done so.But the timing highlights a stark contrast between diplomatic gestures and the reality on the ground, where Israeli settlements continue to expand rapidly across the occupied West Bank.Most world powers consider all the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel says it has historical and scriptural ties to the area that it calls Judea and Samaria.A UN report says Israel has significantly expanded settlements in the West Bank in breach of international law.Today, about 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 3.4mn Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.Last month, Jahalin’s community was served demolition orders for their homes and told they had 60 days to tear them down themselves. Israeli security forces accompanied by dogs have repeatedly raided their homes at night, acts the community views as intimidation.“When a child wakes up and sees a dog in his face, he gets frightened, it’s a disaster,” said Mohammed al-Jahalin, Atallah’s brother.Mohammed al-Jahalin said they used to challenge the demolition notices in court, but since the Gaza war, “if you reach out to the court it will give you an immediate evacuation order.” Part of the E1 project includes the so-called “Fabric of Life Road,” which would create separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians, cutting off Palestinian access to large swathes of the West Bank. The road would also sever a vital link between Bedouin communities — like the 22 families living in Jabal Al-Baba — and the nearby Palestinian village of Al-Eizariya.As children, the Jahalin brothers walked down the stony hill to attend school in the bustling town below, and their grandchildren follow the same path today.“We are dependent on Al-Eizariya for education as the children go to school there, for health, for everything, our economic situation is also tied to Al-Eizariya,” said Atallah.A few hills over across a highway, the settlement of Maale Adumim is poised to expand under the E1 plan.“I do feel for the Palestinians,” said Shelly Brinne, a settler living in Maale Adumim, citing their struggles with checkpoints and limited work opportunities.“But unfortunately as an Israeli citizen I feel like I have to worry about my security first.” A spokesperson for the Maale Adumim settlement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Bedouin community came to Jabal Al-Baba after what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed in the war at the birth of the state of Israel.“Our forefathers lived the Nakba, and today, we go through all the struggle, which we wish our children do not have to go through,” said Atallah, who is the leader of the community.In the evening one of the men made coffee over an open flame while the rest of the community lounged on cushions and traded jokes as the sun dipped behind the hills.Across the highway, the lights of Maale Adumim’s white high-rises glittered.“There is no place for us to go,” said Mohammed, sipping his coffee. “To leave the land that we were born in, and so were our fathers and forefathers, if we have to leave it, it would be like dying.”

Hundreds gathered Wednesday in a village of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to mourn a young man who the Palestinian health ministry said was killed by Israeli settler gunfire.Friends and relatives of 20-year-old Said al-Naasan, killed on Tuesday in Al-Mughayyir, carried his body through the village wrapped in a Palestinian flag with his head covered by a traditional keffiyeh.The Ramallah-based health ministry said in a statement that Naasan was killed “by settler gunfire”, while the Israeli military said an off-duty soldier had fired shots after Palestinians had thrown stones.The village’s mayor, Amin Abu Aliya, said that residents on Tuesday evening saw “several armed settlers herding cattle near homes on the eastern side (of the village)”.“They opened fire on residents there, critically wounding the martyr, who later died from his wounds,” Abu Aliya added.In response to a question from AFP, the Israeli military said the incident occurred during “a violent confrontation in which a dozen Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli civilians in a pasture in the area of Al-Mughayyir”, using a term it usually uses to refer to settlers. Israeli settlers in the West Bank also serve in the army, and sometimes carry their weapons with them when off duty.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.In a separate incident, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a man in his 20s in the West Bank town of Anza Wednesday. In a statement, the Israeli military said that during “operational activity in the area of Anza, a fighter hurled an explosive device towards (Israeli) soldiers operating in the area.”“The soldiers responded with fire and eliminated the fighter,” it said, adding there were no injuries to Israeli troops. Violence in the West Bank has soared since the October 2023 Hamas storming of Israel.Since then, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 981 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many fighters, according to health ministry figures.

A young Palestinian man was martyred by Israeli gunfire on Wednesday in the village of Anza, south of Jenin, according to local sources. They said the victim was struck by a bullet in the back and rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition before succumbing to his wounds.Israeli troops raided the village as students were on their way to school. Classes were disrupted and confrontations broke out between residents and the occupying forces. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained three children from the village of Deir Abu Mash'al, northwest of Ramallah, at dawn on Wednesday.Security sources told WAFA that the IOF detained the three children after raiding their homes and ransacking their contents. The same sources added that the IOF stormed the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, and drove their military vehicles through the streets, raiding several homes, and seizing several vehicles.The Israeli occupation forces continued their incursions, raiding Palestinian homes in the Qarawat Bani Hassan and al-Zawiya, west of Salfit, and assaulting Palestinian youths.

The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 65,382 martyrs, in addition to 166,985 wounded. In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said that hospitals in the Strip received 38 martyrs and 190 wounded in the past 24 hours. The ministry pointed out that the death toll and injuries recorded since the occupation violated the ceasefire agreement on March 18th reached 12,823 martyrs, and 54,944 wounded. The number of aid victims, during the past 24 hours, reached 3 martyrs and 15 wounded, bringing the total number of martyrs who arrived at hospitals to 2,526 martyrs, and the number of injuries to 18,511. The death toll from Israel's comprehensive aggression on the Gaza Strip remains provisional, given the presence of thousands more victims under the rubble, as ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them. This is due to a lack of equipment and the occupation forces' targeting of all relief operations in Gaza, amid a catastrophic humanitarian situation that has reached the level of famine.

The death toll from the relentless offensive the Israeli occupation forces have been launching on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, has soared to 65,344, with 166,795 reported wounded. Additionally, hospitals in the Gaza enclave have received 61 fatalities and 220 injuries in the past 24 hours, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported in a statement on Monday. The statement noted that several victims are still lingering under the rubble and in the roads, as medics and civil defense rescuers have hitherto been unable to reach them. The Israeli all-out aggression against the Gaza Strip, which has been embattled since Oct. 7, 2023, has caused major decimation in critical infrastructure, while Gazans are grappling with aggravated starvation.

Several Palestinians were martyred and injured since dawn on Monday in the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.According to Palestinian news agency (WAFA), medical sources said that a number of Palestinians were martyred and others were injured when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in Al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.The sources added that a child was martyred and others were injured when occupation forces bombed a vehicle east of Al-Zawaida town, central Gaza Strip.Eyewitnesses reported that residents remain trapped inside residential towers in Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City amid continuous Israeli air and artillery bombardment.Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, at least 65,283 Palestinians — mostly women and children — have been martyred, and 166,575 others injured, according to preliminary figures. Many victims remain under the rubble and in the streets, out of reach of ambulances and rescue crews.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul advocated for the immediate start of efforts to reach a two-state solution in the Middle East, while criticizing the Israeli offensive in Gaza City as completely misguided."For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state is more likely to come at the end of the process," the minister said. "But this process must begin now."On Monday afternoon, on the eve of the UN General Assembly, Wadephul plans to attend a conference organized by France and Saudi Arabia that aims to boost support for a two-state solution that envisions Israel and an independent, democratic Palestinian state living peacefully side by side."What the region needs now is an immediate ceasefire, significantly more humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza and the immediate, unconditional release of the hostages," Wadephul said.The Israeli offensive on Gaza City is completely the wrong approach, he added. "Any steps towards annexing occupied territories in violation of international law also undermine the chance of a lasting solution to the conflict." "As far as it may seem at the moment, a negotiated two-state solution is the way to enable Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security and dignity," Wadephul continued.

The Israeli entity continued its attacks on villages and towns in southern Lebanon. Field sources reported that Israeli warplanes raided, around midnight, the outskirts of the towns of Beit Lev and Ramiya, causing severe damage to property and crops.Israeli army forces also fired incendiary bombs at the forests adjacent to the Blue Line, opposite the towns of Naqoura and Alma al-Shaab. Additionally, Israeli warplanes carried out more than one raid on the villages of the western and central sectors in Naqoura, Al-Mansouri and Mays Al-Jabal, which led to a number of deaths.Israeli forces continued, until Tuesday morning, to fire flares over the border villages adjacent to the Blue Line in the western and central sectors, reaching the outskirts of the city of Tyre, in conjunction with reconnaissance flights over the border villages in the Tyre district and the sea coast, up to the Litani River.The Israeli entity continues its escalation against the towns and villages of southern Lebanon, coinciding with its ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, which has resulted in the deaths and injuries of civilians and forced hundreds of families to flee their homes.

The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 65,283 martyrs, in addition to 166,575 wounded, the majority of whom were children and women. In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said that hospitals in the Strip received, over the past 24 hours, the bodies of 75 martyrs (four of whom were recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings) and 304 wounded. The total death toll since the occupation violated the ceasefire agreement on March 18, 2025, has reached approximately 12,724 martyrs and 54,534 wounded. It also noted that the number of aid victims arriving at hospitals over the past 24 hours reached five martyrs and 24 injured, bringing the total number of aid-seeking victims arriving at hospitals to 2,523 martyrs and over 18,473 injured.

Settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem on Sunday, under the protection of the Israeli occupation police. The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), quoting eyewitnesses, reported that settlers entered Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals.The so-called 'Temple Mount' organizations continue to mobilize as many settlers as possible to carry out large-scale collective incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holiday season.Since 2003, settlers have been storming Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli occupation forces five days a week. In the past ten years, they began performing silent public prayers during their incursions, escalating to performing Talmudic rituals and raising the flag of the occupying state inside the mosque.The Temple Mount organizations are seeking to gradually impose the presence of Talmudic ritual tools in Al-Aqsa, representing a clear escalation aimed at changing the Islamic character of the mosque.Since the beginning of the comprehensive Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank in October 2023, more than 68,000 settlers have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of occupation forces, amid tightened entry procedures to the mosque and its surrounding Old City entrances.